Investigation on the effect of salicylic acid in enhancing storage life and postharvest quality of grape "Soltanin"

Regarding the increasing demand for table grapes consumption, the restrictions in maintenance postharvest life lead to decreas storage life and shelf life of the produce. Salicylic acid plays an important roles in decreasing the adverse effects of biotic and/ or abiotic stresses such as low temperatures. In order to study the effect of salicylic acid treatment in preserving quality of "Soltanin" table grape,  a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with salicylic acid at 1, 2 and 4 mM, washing with distilled water and without washing (control) with 3 replications. After treatment, grapes were stored at 1 ˚C and 90% RH during 6 weeks and quality attributes were evaluated every once a week. The results showed that salicylic acid reduces some the chilling injuries and maintains fruit quality. Also, treatment with salicylic acid enhanced proline content, total carbohydrates and decreased the activity of gauiacol peoxidase enzyme and H2O2 content. Treatment with 4 mM salicylic acid showed the highest total carotenoids after 2 weeks of cold storage. But according to the results, salicylic acid at 2 mM significantly extened the shelf life of "soltanin"  table grape.